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Barry Whyte is a 'Master Inventor' working in the Systems Group. Now based in Auckland New Zealand, Barry is working for the IBM ATS team covering Storage Virtualization for the AP region. Previously Barry was based in IBM Hursley, UK. Barry primarly works on the IBM SAN Volume Controller and Storwize family of virtual disk systems. Barry graduated from The University of Glasgow in 1996 with a B.Sc (Hons) in Computing Science. In his 20 years at IBM he has also worked on the successful Serial Storage Architecture (SSA) and the IBM DS8000 range. Barry joined the SVC development team soon after its inception and has held many positions before taking on his long running role as performance architect. In 2015 Barry moved to New Zealand, but maintains a part-time working role for the Hursley team working as a performance consultant. Outside of work, Barry enjoys playing golf and all things to do with Rotary Engines. All posts on this blog are (c) Copyright International Business Machines 2007-2016 - reproduction without prior approval is prohibited.

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The SPC contacted SUN regarding violations of the SPC 'fair-use' terms. To that end, John and Valdis have retracted both the newsletter comments and blog posts that claimed 'faster than SVC' therefore the links in this post no longer show their original content. I have left this post in place for... [Continue Reading]

In part 1 of this series I covered the terminology of SVC. Part 2 showed how you would introduce existing volumes into a virtualized environment using SVC. In part 3 I cover the 'now what'... Making the most of it Once you have imported the data, you now have a set of disks that are simply running... [Continue Reading]

I've been seeing a lot of discussion around the topic of Thin Provisioning vs Storage Virtualization as we know it today. While its true that when compared with other uses of Virtualization, todays storage devices don't pretend to have more space than there is - unless you use Thin Provisioning or... [Continue Reading]

Your Personal Invitation to the SVC and Storwize V7000 User Group Meeting This is an unrivalled opportunity for you to meet with and talk to IBM’s leading SVC and IBM Storwize V7000 subject matter experts. Our team will formally present their views on the strategic directions of SVC and IBM... [Continue Reading]

It seems like only a few weeks ago I was covering the release of SVC 4.3.0 with support for Space-efficient Vdisks and Vdisk Mirroring, and here we are again with today's announce of SVC 4.3.1 software. This time round however its more than just a software release. Until today, mid-sized businesses... [Continue Reading]

So far I have concentrated on the hardware side of the new SVC 5.1 release, thats probably because after
the work I did with IBM Almaden Research last year on Project Quicksilver, I became the architect for
the sub-SVC project to add SSD support to SVC. The tecnology demo set the scene and... [Continue Reading]

IBM System Storage Technical User Group Webinar IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC) Implementation Best Practices Join us for a Webinar on October 14 Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/988779121 You are invited to attend this upcoming... [Continue Reading]

I've been following the Solid State Disk (SSD) evolution over the last year or two with a selfish eye. Running one of the largest test stands we have in the Hursley SVC lab (from a number of spindles point of view) I too suffer the pain of drive fall-out. Its more of just an annoyance to me though,... [Continue Reading]

The "Shark" and FC-AL Years - 1998-present Last time I briefly covered the Hursley Storage team's work on the 7133 - Serial Storage Architecture products. Thanks for all the emails about this, and I'm glad people still remember it - fondly?! Those screwdrivers - and Martin, i think most... [Continue Reading]

Before I forget I wanted to wish SVC all the best in its 6th year in production. I guess it seems a lot longer, but then I have been (like a lot of the team) working on it for over 8 years now. IBM just celebrated its 50th year at the Hursley site . For those of you that don't know Hursley, its... [Continue Reading]

In part2 of this "HiW" - How it Works - discussion of SVC, I look at how you can take an existing SAN infrastructure and Virtualize it. Import your Data Its likely that today you have a SAN of some kind. It maybe a couple of 32 port switches, or it maybe a pair (or more) of enterprise class... [Continue Reading]

Cornerstone #1 - Online data migration It's always nice to influence peoples lives in a positive way. Thoseof you reading this have no doubt had the fun of being 'on call' foryour respective company. That frantic storage call at 3am on a Sundaymorning when things haven't quite gone to plan. Wouldn't... [Continue Reading]

Spectrum Virtualize Quorum Happy New Year to all. I’ve been getting a few questions relating to quorum devices, and in particular the IP quorum and what happens when various different failure scenarios occur. I thought it was worth detailing things here. So first some background. What are... [Continue Reading]

How well are you handling the information explosion? Can your storage infrastructure handle the next growth phase? Success in today's business climate will require a dynamic information infrastructure that is highly available, responsive, efficient and cost effective. In this webcast, hear how... [Continue Reading]

I can't help it. It seems that every post that Mr Yoshida makes strikes me as being somewhat questionable. I have much respect for how long he has been in the blogging game. I have no respect for his lack of reader comment acceptance - I've long since given up replying as he decides to ignore those... [Continue Reading]